I worked at the club for 3 years but then left to get a "proper job" but stayed on as a steward from 88 till 99, the training was a 3 hour session on a summer Sunday morning hosted by the police that basically told you what you could do and how to take down someone attacking you with a bottle. It was good fun!

I already had a part time job as a night club bouncer at the Brunel Rooms at the time so knew what to do so it was piss easy.

I got paid £25 per game and at that time the price of a ticket was £10 and I would have gone anyway so I was £35 up per game!

The only times I ever felt threatened by any away fan (I am a pretty big lump and most away fans never argued with me anyway) was Cardiff in the FA cup in 95 and against Millwall in the LC QF of 95.

Millwall brought "spotters" who were supposed to go in and eject the known trouble and all they did was "hes banned" "hes a trouble maker" and they did nothing, the Police told us not to go into the crowd and eject any fans unless we had backup from them....we had no backup! and there was a lot of trouble inside the ground, horrible thugs both those sets of fans.

Oxford, Shitty and Rovers fans were like choirboys in comparison.

Logged

Because I chose to play the fool in a six-piece bandFirst-night nerves every one-night standI should be glad to be so inclinedWhat a waste! What a waste!Rock n Roll don't mind.

Also recall the stewards legging it along with everyone else after an early season Leicester pitch invasion late 80's / early 90's.

I don't remember that at all, could have been one game I missed, but doesn't ring a bell at all.

The only pitch invasion I do remember was Lids fans invading the pitch at the end of the Premier season and running towards the Town End where I was steward but they were actually non threatening and pretty well behaved set of fans.

Logged

Because I chose to play the fool in a six-piece bandFirst-night nerves every one-night standI should be glad to be so inclinedWhat a waste! What a waste!Rock n Roll don't mind.

My first game was a cup match against Pompey too,but it was in 1977 and we won 4-3.

My old man hated football so a neighbour took me. We stood in the Southside terrace,and I went down the front with all the other nippers,I would've been 7 at the time.I'll never forget that feeling walking into the ground under floodlights,and the smell of frying onions and pipe smoke.

The thing that caught my attention the most was the chant of "Sa - win -don",which my family,who don't hail from Swindon, found hilarious when I told them later.My mum still takes the piss today,asking how 'Sa win don' got on

That,and the amount of violence!I couldn't believe the sight grown men beating the shit out of each other on the pitch just yards in front of me,as Elkie Brooks' "Pearl's a singer" gently played over the Tannoy system.One bloke even leap frogged over me to get on the pitch and smack someone.Yet everything around me seemed to carry on as normal,like no one had noticed the ongoing spectacle.The Announcer wittered away and old boys checked their programmes like nothing had happened.

One Swindon fan that was dragged off by Police, was black,and I remember being shocked at the amount of racist abuse he received.Even the guy I was with shouted "Get back to the jungle".

As for the game itself,all I remember is Chris Kamara scored and became my instant favourite player.And I had change out of 50p!

And I've been suffering ever since..

I think I remember that game. It was shortly after Kammy had signed for us from Pompey. On the pitch it was a helluva battle and Kammy was everywhere, especially with his sliding tackles. Racist chanting was of course, sadly, common in those days. I recall having been especially shocked to hear monkey chants directed at Kammy that night by the Pompey fans as I had thought he would be one of those players they still loved. I have always hated all racist behaviour but, looking back, it is a strange sensitivity that I should have felt Kammy somehow had something about him that made it shocking that HE should be abused. Regardless, Kammy became a new hero for me too right up to the time he ended his Swindon career (and acquired a criminal conviction) by breaking the nose of Jim Melrose, the Shrew who had been racially abusing him.

I think I remember that game. It was shortly after Kammy had signed for us from Pompey. On the pitch it was a helluva battle and Kammy was everywhere, especially with his sliding tackles. Racist chanting was of course, sadly, common in those days. I recall having been especially shocked to hear monkey chants directed at Kammy that night by the Pompey fans as I had thought he would be one of those players they still loved. I have always hated all racist behaviour but, looking back, it is a strange sensitivity that I should have felt Kammy somehow had something about him that made it shocking that HE should be abused. Regardless, Kammy became a new hero for me too right up to the time he ended his Swindon career (and acquired a criminal conviction) by breaking the nose of Jim Melrose, the Shrew who had been racially abusing him.